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Monthly Archives: August 2007

Despite scrubbing out horribly on day one, I went back to watch the final matches of Grand Prix SF on day two. m, who outperformed me on day one but also did not make day two, came along as well (you can read my coverage of day one here, and m’s here). I brought my video camera and m brought his SLR, making us the best-equipped coverage “team” on site (and leading many to believe we had to be official coverage for some website or another).
That’s an excellent capturing of the moment, during the final match of the GP between Jonathan Stocks and this year’s national champion, Luis Scott-Vargas. You can see more of m’s pics in his GP SF Flickr photo set.
I spent my afternoon taking video. I recorded one quarterfinal match, one semifinal match, and the final match. They’re all up on YouTube:

Stocks versus Scott-Vargas in the final match.
m also has video from day two, of the quarterfinal between Stocks and pro player Paul Cheon (with whom I had an interesting conversation about my wacky deck choice for the weekend, and which of us has a better Korean accent):

I was debating whether it would be worth going to watch the top eight in day two, but it really was a lot of fun. It was also my first time experiencing “photographer’s legitimacy,” in which the simple fact that I was recording the event with a camera got me access I would have otherwise had trouble securing.

m, D, and I went to day 1 of Grand Prix San Francisco today. Magic: the Gathering Grand Prix events are open events (anyone can sign up) that give the winners pro points, cash prizes, and invites to upcoming Pro Tour events. GP SF, for example, is handing out invites to the upcoming Pro Tour in Valencia, Spain. Since invites come with plane tickets, that’s not a bad prize.
We came mainly for the experience of a GP, since they travel, and we can’t expect to have one come quite so close anytime in the near future. Although they called it GP San Francisco, this was more properly GP San Jose, as it’s taking place in the San Jose convention center.
Some more commentary and pics in the extended; you can also see more at my GP SF Flickr photo set.